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The road to energy security in Chile

Publicado: 30 July, 2015

Sustainability

The energy sector in Chile faces a major challenge that keeps on repeating itself worldwide: the association of major topics involving non-conventional renewable energies, energy security, decreasing electricity prices, energy efficiency, and citizen involvement. In this context, the Escenarios Energéticos 2030 initiative began in 2009 as a social innovation to propel the development of a sustainable energy future for Chile, which has been replicated in Argentina and Brazil.

Fundación Chile, along with other organizations from the business sector, academia, and civil society, were all active participants in Escenarios Energéticos 2030, which has finished a cycle of six years. This experience, through dialogue and participative construction, has reached two strategic objectives: the construction and discussion of different electricity generation scenarios by the year 2030, and the generation of tools for the formulation of an energy policy.

The Escenarios Energéticos 2030 initiative has completed a cycle, promoting the creation of confidence and the broad exchange of knowledge in an open and transparent debate to define the energy matrix Chile needs, what externalities need to be taken on, and which ones remain unfinished.

In the same way, the innovative methodology of Escenarios Energéticos 2030 contributed to the creation of consciousness and a more mature debate, with a long-term perspective, involving the citizenry and which can also be applied to water issues. That is, getting to know those alternative technologies that could provide a solution to the current deficit and the water future faced by the northern and central regions of Chile. This proposes a result that is not just shared, but also communicated to society and translated from complex to simple terms.

Finally, it highlights the importance of delivering a political perspective on social processes and infrastructure projects. Energy and water do not just have a connection with greater economic development, but are also related to education, culture, social development, and the inhabitants and communities near the projects’ locations. In this sense, that social innovation view-point allowed for a contribution in the debate on a theme as crucial as energy is.